Bhubaneswar: Fearing an exodus or filing of papers by rebels, Congress kept its final list of candidates close to its chest on the last day of filing of nominations for second phase polls, as Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) chief Jayadev Jena personally distributed party tickets to some aspirants.
Though the party's Central Election Committee has not made any announcement regarding the list till the filing of this report, the names of the candidates came to public only after nominations were filed by them at the respective district electoral officers.
The list of 22 candidates is as follows:
Sibananda Ray (Ekamra-Bhubaneswar), Subhendu Mohanty (Bhubaneswar-Central), Manoranjan Das (Bhubaneswar-North), Rabi Sethi (Kakatpur), Janmejaya Lenka (Badachana), Sidheswar Mishra (Dhenkanal), Bapi Sarkhel (Paradip), Rajkishore Behera (Tirtol), Benudhar Bhoi (Jayadev), Uma Ballav Rath (Puri), Satyajit Patnaik (Ranpur), Biwa Mallick (Bari), Santosh Nanda (Jajpur), Dhanurjay Sidhu (Telkoi), Sidheswar Nayak (Keonjhar), Yaminikanta Nayak (Badasahi), Kirtan Mohapatra (Nilagiri), Arun Dey (Baleswar Sadar), Srinath Mishra (Dharmasala), Khetramohan Mohanta (Champua), Biswajit Nayak (Korei) and Laxmi Devi (Badamba).
Meanwhile, the party replaced its candidates for three Assembly seats.
Lala Manoj Ray was offered a chance to contest from Nayagarh Assembly seat in place of Sitakant Mishra.
Similarly, Amiya Mallick will contest from Chandbali constituency instead of Jyoti Mohanty.
Laxmi Devi secured a ticket in Bhandaripokhari Assembly seat and replaced Subrata Das.